Thursday, June 9, 2011

LOS ANGELES - A West Hills man faces a potential 10-year federal prison term for allegedly conning prospective Mexican immigrants out of thousands of dollars by filing bogus paperwork for those seeking temporary work visas, federal officials said today.

Carlos Alberto Silva, 29, was arrested on visa fraud charges Tuesday at his office in Canoga Park by special agents with the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

A criminal complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles alleges that Silva filed phony petitions on behalf of legitimate businesses seeking to obtain work visas for immigrant workers.

At his initial federal court appearance late Wednesday, Silva was freed on a $40,000 bond. He is scheduled to enter a plea on July 5.

As part of the scheme, Silva was involved with Mexican recruitment agencies that charged aliens about 50,000 pesos -- $3,000 to $4,000 -- to seek visas that would allow them to enter the United States, prosecutors allege.

The case against Silva was announced today in conjunction with the unveiling of a national initiative to combat immigration services scams in which perpetrators offer legal advice, representation and other "professional" assistance in immigration matters even though they are not licensed or qualified.

"We are committed to prosecuting notarios who operate as scam artists and victimize the most vulnerable among us -- the hard-working men and women in our immigrant communities," said U.S. Attorney Andre Birotte Jr.

According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, Silva held himself out as an attorney and offered legal services to businesses that needed help hiring unskilled temporary alien workers.

However, from mid-2008 through the end of 2009, Silva filed fraudulent petitions on behalf of his clients that falsely claimed the businesses needed more employees -- and more work visas -- than the firms actually had requested from Silva, prosecutors allege.

Filing petitions with inflated numbers is known as "benching," according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

"We are dedicated to protecting vulnerable immigrants from those who seek to exploit them," said Alejandro Mayorkas, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services.

"Through our sustained outreach, enforcement and education efforts, and our close collaboration with our federal, state and local partners, we will provide the communities we serve with the help needed to combat this pernicious problem."

As part of the nationwide effort to crack down on immigration-related scams, a public education campaign in English, Spanish and a dozen other languages will be introduced.

"This coordinated initiative targets those who prey on immigrant communities by making promises they do not keep and charging for services they are not qualified to provide," said Tony West, assistant attorney general for the civil division of the U.S. Department of Justice.

"We are attacking this problem both through aggressive civil and criminal enforcement and by connecting qualified lawyers with victims who are trying to navigate a complicated immigration system," he said.